


an epiphany of sorts

by paperback92



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Iron Dad, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, based off one frame of the endgame trailer, literally one little frame, that photo baby, you know the one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 06:03:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18330086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperback92/pseuds/paperback92
Summary: “How’d it turn out, Ms. Potts?” He asked, already looking at it over her shoulder.“Perfect.” She answered and Tony had to agree. It was definitely a winner.They were both giving the other bunny ears. Peter was mugging, his face lit up in big dorky grin. And Tony, well, he could tell from the look on his face what had been going on in his head. That, somehow, he’d let this bright, kind, scarily brilliant kid into his heart and he wasn’t leaving it anytime soon.“Oh yeah,” He murmured, grinning. “This is getting framed.”Or:Tony Stark takes a picture with Peter Parker and has an epiphany





	an epiphany of sorts

Peter Parker was officially a Stark Industries paid intern. 

Unofficially, he’d been an intern for months. Longer, really, if you counted his intern cover story. After the plane crash, the Vulture, and the rest of that nasty business, it fully occurred to Tony that his hands off mentoring style was not cutting it. His answer to that had been to move the kid in upstate and make him an Avenger. 

That rejection had smarted, Tony wouldn’t lie. But, after sitting on it, he decided that it hadn’t been a rejection of him per se. So he took a calculated risk, returned the suit, and invited the kid to the compound to see the lab. 

Their first lab session had been rocky, filled with awkward gaps of silences and stilted polite conversation. But the next one saw Peter make a breakthrough on a tricky problem on the side project that’d been plaguing Tony for weeks and the rest was history. 

Ironically, it had never occurred to Tony to make it an official position. By then, the every other weekends Peter spent at the compound was just for fun. He didn’t associate it with SI business. Even May tagged along every once in a while. 

It wasn’t until Peter mentioned in passing he might have to cut down his time at the compound because he was looking for a job, then Tony complaining about it to Pepper in passing, and Pepper, bless her soul, reminding him that his beautiful, smart, fiancee, ran his company and could make Peter’s internship a paid one, did it hit Tony that it was an option. 

They had to run Peter through the ringer for it though. He’d instantly have it if it was just up to Tony and Pepper, but he needed board approval and they were a tough nut to crack. Not to mention he had strong competition for the coveted spot.

Turned out, Tony hadn’t even needed to worry about it. Peter breezed through the entry tests like it was a third grade math test and blew the board away with his project. Tony had stood right outside the conference room, grinning like an idiot, as the board practically pissed themselves in amazement.

The internship document signing ceremony was perhaps a tad over kill but it’d been a tradition since his father ran the company and Tony would be lying if he said he didn’t want to show Peter off to the press. 

Cameras and crowds were not Peter Parker’s thing, apparently, judging by the stiff smile and tense line his shoulders had taken on by the time Pepper shooed them all out of the room.

“How you doing, kid?” Tony asked, throwing an arm around the kid and discreetly kneading the tight muscle under his hand.

Peter blinked around the room a few times. “Still seeing stars.” 

Tony nodded. “You get used to that. Eventually all the flashes will just burn out your retinas.” 

“What?” 

“Chill out, kid. I’m kidding.” Tony paused. “It’s actually the corneas that crap out first.” 

“Mr. Stark!” Peter yelped indignantly.

“Stop teasing him, Tony.” Pepper admonished with a grin of her own, as she walked back into the room. She stopped in front of them and held her phone up. “I want another picture. Just for us and May.”

“My corneas.” Peter whine ended in a yelp when Pepper pinched him, teasingly. He laughed along with her, but his shoulder’s still locked with left over tension. 

Tony would fix that.

He dramatically pulled off his glasses and tossed them, clattering, onto the table. He turned and took Peter by the shoulders. It took every ounce of self control to school his face into a semblance of faux seriousness and not cave when Peter’s blinked owlishly, surprised, up at him.

“You listen here, Parker.” Tony said sternly, finger pointed at him. “This is the most important picture you’ll ever take in your whole life. More important than graduation, wedding, or even your children’s pictures.”

Peter blinked again. Tony fought against the upward twitching of his lips, when Peter finally caught onto the joke and smiled, dopey up at him.

“This is going on your college recommendation letters, social media, May’s fridge, my fridge-“

“The company newsletter.” Pepper interjected and Tony gasped. He shook Peter’s shoulders, inwardly grinning as Peter instantly went loose under his grasp. His neck bobbled with the motion, his head flopping comically around.

“The newsletter, Parker! The goddamn'd newsletter!”

Peter outright giggled at that and the sound burrowed straight into Tony’s heart. Yeah, he was in way too deep with this kid. He grabbed the discarded sunglasses and slipped them back onto his face. 

“All right, Parker.” He said, running his hands over the shoulders of Peter’s old hand-me-down jacket. The kid had refused any of the clothes Tony had offered him and he knew the second Peter had walked in wearing the slight too big jacket why. 

He licked his palm, ignored Peter’s noise of disgust, and smoothed down the cowlick that stood to attention. He turned them aorund to face Pepper. He picked up the certificate and spun in over and over until Peter laughed, then put one side into the kid’s hand. He was pretty sure it was upside down. 

“All right.” Tony said again, facing the camera. “This is it, Parker. I’m serious. No funny faces, no throwing up gang signs, no emojis, no bunny ears.” He lecutured, while moving his hand steadily up Peter’s back, bunny ears at the ready. He felt Peter’s hand do the same behind his back.

“Smile, boys.” Pepper instructed and Tony was about to until Peter stepped closer, pressing flush against his side. 

Tony remembered the flash flood of second hand embarrassment when Peter had hugged him in the car after Germany. He’d liked the kid, sure, but he didn’t lie when he had said they weren’t there yet. There weren’t. 

That was months ago though. Now, after countless hours in the lab together, casual touches, meals shared, Tony supposed that they were there now. But it had honestly never occurred to him that there were until that moment. 

Pepper decided that right in the middle of his epiphany was the perfect time to snap the photo. 

Tony shook himself out of his momentary stupor and patted Peter on the back, returning the kid’s smile. He laid the certificate back on the table and walked over to Pepper. He couldn’t help but notice the way her ring sparkled under the artificial lights as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. Peter mocked gagged in the background.

“How’d it turn out, Ms. Potts?” He asked, already looking at it over her shoulder. 

“Perfect.” She answered and Tony had to agree. It was definitely a winner. 

They were both giving the other bunny ears. Peter was mugging, his face lit up in big dorky grin. And Tony, well, he could tell from the look on his face what had been going on in his head. That, somehow, he’d let this bright, kind, scarily brilliant kid into his heart and he wasn’t leaving it anytime soon. 

“Oh yeah,” He murmured, grinning. “This is getting framed.” 

And it had. And there was matching one sitting on the mantle of the Parker’s living room. He knew because Peter had stuck it there, front and center the second Tony had given it to him. 

Tony wondered, after the end of the world, after he failed miserably, if it was still sitting there or if May had turned it over in her grief. 

To say she hadn’t taken the news well was a gross understatement. She’d lost her child. Her son in everything but blood. Her baby. 

Tony had expected the tears and heart wrenching sobs. And when she reached towards him, he’d expected pounding fists and curses. Instead, she had wrapped him up in her arms. He and May had gotten closer over the past two years of him injecting himself in their lives. Close enough, that he squeezed her back tightly and cried along with her.

“You’ll bring him back, Stark.” She told him that that authoritative way that only Pepper Potts and May Parker seemed to have over him. The tone of voice that made him instinctively square his shoulders back.

“I will.” He’d promised and, now, as he flipped the framed photo of him and Peter repeatedly in his hands, it was a promise he intended to keep. No matter what. 

“Tony?” The knock on his office door made him look up. Steve stood in the threshold, watching him. He was dressed in the new red and white suit. His clear, blue eyes flickered down to the photo on Tony’s lap then back to his face. “You ready?”

The plan was the Avenger’s last ditch effort. Their Hail Mary. Truly their last resort. If this didn’t work, then nothing would. 

If they won, then they’d get everything back. If they lost then, well, they didn’t have much to lose to start with, but they’d lose it all.

Tony took one last long look at the photo. He committed it to memory. He made himself remember every second, every single emotion he’d felt that day. The way Peter smiled up at him. His solid weight under Tony’s hands, letting himself get tossing around playfully because he trusted Tony. The feeling of rightness when he tucked himself into Tony’s side. The feeling of having a child, a son, in everything but blood. Of loving him.

“Yeah.” Tony said, finally setting the picture done. He kept it face up, letting Peter Parker’s youthful beaming face follow him out of the room. “Let’s do this.”

He had a promise to keep.

**Author's Note:**

> Me: Struggles for months on one chapter of her WIP.
> 
> Also me: Slings out over 1500 words based on one frame of the newest endgame trailer in two hours. 
> 
> Oh well. Muses are weird, what can I say? 
> 
> Hope everyone that tried to get endgame tickets got them! 
> 
> Come visit me on [ tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/awwcoffee92)


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